Former Newcastle United schemer Emre Belözoğlu (above left) is at the centre of yet another racism storm after Trabzonspor midfielder Didier Zokora accused the Turkish star of racially abusing him during a league clash with Fenerbahce at the weekend. The former Tottenham man said:

“Emre and I came face to face during the match. I’ll tell you what he said word for word. He called me: ‘A dirty n**ger’.

“This is the first time in my life something like this has happened to me. Emre has Africans like (Joseph) Yobo and (Moussa) Sow at team-mates – I can’t understand why he’d say such a thing.

“We’re trying to get on with our jobs. What does the colour of our skin matter? Fans, Fifa, the press are all against racist statements. I hope something like this doesn’t go unpunished.”

Emre has previous when it comes to accusations of racism after he was charged with using racist language during an Everton game in 2007. And when asked about Zokora’s comments, the 31-year-old pretty much admitted to racially abusing him. He said:

“In the heat of the moment in matches, you say bad things to one another. I used a stupid word, but he was also insulting me.”

“We apologised to one another five minutes later, and hugged after the match. I’d like to apologise to everyone I know. For my part, I’d like to apologise for everything I said.”

@Blake, 5 of the 16 hooligans getting involved with Leeds Fans were sentenced 5-10 years (A. Baydar, A.Ü.Demir, S. Aydin received 6 yrs, Güven received 10 yrs, Y. Tutuş received 5yrs.). Guven hid from the Police for 10 years but at the end he was arrested in 2010.

You categorize Turkey and Turkish people based on one incident (in which the associated were arrested and punished) – isn’t this “kinda” racist?

He is not saying “dirty n…”
It’s exactly “fucking ni…”
The very first moment, he admitted that he “might” have said such things but yesterday, he denied and said “I didn’t say negro, I just said prick”
You’ve seen the video. It’s obvious what he said. Hope that Turkish federation will punish that kind of a racist insult.

@Blake you are very quick to judge Turkey as if it is some kind of lawless country but I think its clear that its not since it attracts millions of tourists each year.

In the video above he said to the presenter that in the heat of the moment he said filthy words that he regrets and apologises unreservedly and goes on to say that he should not be singled out because Zokora provoked him with filthy words to begin with.

I find it far more transparent to see such matters being discussed openly on air rather than leaving people to speculate and involving police or law cases. I wonder if Terry had just come clean too perhaps it wouldn’t be dragging on like it has. Either way racism will not be tolerated over there any more than here.

They were not ‘sentenced’; they were bailed, and have been out on bail since the sentence.

And I doubt that saying that Turkish authorities aren’t doing enough/anything to deter or punish racism is an attack on all Turkish people. That’s just plain foolish; and if it is racism, doesn’t that make a lot of the articles on this website, especially the last one about Emmanuel Eboué ‘kinda racist’ also? Is saying “it’s not been a good week for the image of Turkish football, has it?” kinda racist? Can offering the opinion that authorities need to do more to deter racism otherwise they look bad racist? I’d probably say no to all of the above.

Countries can’t be seen to be racist or not racist: people are racist or not racist. I am saying that Turkish authorities need to do more, *a lot* more to discourage and punish racism. I think it gives Turkey a bad image, although that alone should not mean that I said it is a ‘lawless country’.

Also: I doubt the tourism argument is a very good one. The frequent and regular news about racist attacks and conflicts in Turkish football is, in fact, giving Turkey a bad image, whether or not they have lots of tourists.

I am a Chelsea fan, also; I sincerely hope that if Terry is found to have racially abused Ferdinand that he’s punished severely. That’s appalling conduct on behalf of a captain of both club and country.